Furniture and storage are often used for storing documents, personal belongings, equipment, clothing and other objects which have a value to the owner and which the owner of course does not want to lose or get into the wrong hands. In public environments, such as offices or public buildings, the problem is of particular importance because many people occupy such spaces. However, far from all furniture or storage have a basic design which allows locking.
There is therefore a market for electric lock devices which can be mounted to furniture and storage, either at the manufacturing stage or for retrofitting in their intended usage environment. In order to facilitate use of such electric lock devices both for the intended users of the furniture and storage and for the management of the operation in question, access to the lockable space in the piece of furniture or storage should be controlled by authorization control by means of some kind of key. Physical (mechanical) keys are the classic example, but it is nowadays more preferred to use electronic or digital keys in the form of, for instance, smart cards or proximity tags. Such keys are already used for instance for controlling the entry into offices or public buildings.
There are a number of demands and practical problems in the market for electric lock devices for furniture and storage, some of which will now be briefly referred to.
It is considered an advantage if existing electronic or digital keys, such as smart cards or proximity tags, which are already used for other reasons in the operation, could be used also for the electric lock devices.
Also, when electric lock devices are to be retrofitted to furniture or storage, it is desired for practical reasons to avoid electric wiring installations while at the same time facilitating the mounting as much as possible.
Once the electric lock devices have been mounted to the furniture or storage, the electric lock devices shall operate autonomously and at a minimum need for maintenance or special equipment.
At the same time, there should be an easy way of configuring each electric lock device as regards exactly which user or users, and hence which electronic or digital key or keys, should be authorized to control the electric lock device for unlocking and locking, respectively, of the piece of furniture or storage. This is first and foremost important for safety reasons as such. It is conversely also important to be able to swiftly and conveniently handle changes in the operation, for instance because of changes in the user group, lost keys, changes in the premises, etc. Sooner or later it is very likely that every electric lock device needs to be reconfigured to, for instance, reflect that the authority of an existing user is to be removed, authority is to be added for a new user, etc.
Furthermore, there may be different needs in different parts of the operation (or between different operations) as regards the access control principles which shall apply to the lock devices. Examples of different access control principles can be whether the piece of furniture or storage shall be initially unlocked or locked, whether locking shall occur automatically or manually, whether just one or several different users shall be able to operate the lock device in each given situation, or whether locked condition shall prevail until further notice or only during a certain period, and if so for how long.
As appears from the above, there is room for improvements in the field of lockable furniture and storage.